Bavarian Nordic's 1st-qtr income halves to $6M

Danish drugmaker Bavarian Nordic AS says that, in the first quarter of 2006, it achieved revenues of 35.3 million kroner ($6.0 million), less than half the 70.7 million kroner it reported in the like, year-ago period. On the strength of the fall in revenue its loss before interest and tax totaled 56.6 million kroner versus 17.2 million kroner.

The firm also attributed its deepening loss to increased legal fees in relation to its US smallpox vaccine contract dispute with the UK's Acambis (Marketletter August 29, 2005), as well as costs for the Kvistgard production facility and establishment of the representative office in Singapore.

However, despite this result, the firm maintains its projections for full-year 2006 with a revenue of approximately 800.0-900.0 million kroner and pretax profit 80.0-100.0 million kroner, based on the assumption that it will be awarded an RFP-III contract in the first half of the year for its Modified Virus Ankara-based smallpox vaccine.